Office



(ModeL) 0. H. NIOOLLS.

' muss.

W/ M55555 A N T %M%MZL MW Ma -2 UNITED STATES PATENT- Enron,

CHARLES H. NICOLLS, OF JORDAN, NEXV YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO CHARLES EDIVARD CHAPPELL, OF SAME PLACE.

'TRUSS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 343,388, dated June 8, 1886.

Application filed March 25,1886. Serial No. 196,577. (Modem To all whom it may concern..-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES H. NIooLLs, of Jordan, in the county of Onondaga, in the State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Hernial Trusses, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention consists, first, in a novel construction of a spring metal supporting-bar of a hernial truss, which bar is adjustable to fit different-sized persons,and affords bearings on the back of the wearer at such positions as to cause the said bar to securely hold the pad 1 5 in its requisite position over the hernia during the various movements which the wearer may adopt; and the invention also consists in a novel attachment of the pad to the, supporting-bar, all as hereinafter fully explained,and

2o specifically set forth in the claims.

In the annexed drawings, Figure 1 is a front view of my improved hernial truss. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section of the pad, showing its attachment to the supporting-bar; and Fig. 4 shows my invention embodied in a single truss.

Similar letters of reference indicate corrcsponding parts.

A denotes the main brace or support of the truss, which support I form of a springmetal bar bent into bows or loops at a, and into an upward deflection, 0, between said bows or loops, and from these bows or loops the bar is bent into outward, upward, and forward curved bows, b b, and terminates with inward and downward curvatures, as shown at I) Z), and to these ends are attached two pads, 10 p, which are carried the same distance below the bows b b as the loops ca.

0 \Vhen this truss is applied to a person, the

loops at a serve as bearings on the back portions of the hip-bones, and these back bearings cause the extremities of the bar A to be raised and lowered as the said bearings are lowered and raised; hence, when the" wearer of the truss stoops, the supporting-bar A follows the movement of the body and lowers the ends of the bar at the front of the body, and thus maintains the pads 12 p in their proper '50 positions over the hernia, and as the person assumes an upright position the supportingbarAagain follows the movement of the body and raises the pads as the frontportion of the body rises, and consequently thepads remain undisturbed in their position over the hernia. 5 The arch 0 between the loops at a rises suffi ciently to bring it across the small of the back without producing injurious pressure thereon. The bows b b rise over the sides of the hips, and thus leave the movement of the latter unincumbered.

The described supporting-bar A can be adjusted to fit persons of different sizes by expanding or contracting the loops to a and imparting more or less curvature to the iuterme- 6 5 diate arch, c, the bar being sufficiently flexible to permit of bending the aforesaid parts thereof as may be required for the said adj ustment, and although said bar is capable of being bent into different shapes, yet it possesses suf- 7o ficient stiffness to impart the requisite pressure to the pad P.

For a single truss I leave off one of the bows Z) and bend the other bow over across the back and above the loops (1 a and arch c, and thence 7 over the side of the hip, and terminate it with an inward and downward curvature in the same shape as bows of the double truss, as represented in Fig. 4 of the drawings.

The attachment of the pad I? to the supporting-bar A, I make as follows: The pad I provide with a longitudinal or vertical channel, into which I insert loosely the end of the bar A. Through an opening, 0, in the back of the pad I introduce an eyebolt, d, into the lon- 8 5 gitudinal channel of the pad,across the lower end thereof, and through said eyebolt the end of the bar A is extended. By means of a setscrew, 0, inserted into the eyebolt from the back of the pad, and bearing on theinclosed portion of the bar A, the pad is retained on said bar; and in order to allow to the pad a limited oscillation under a yielding resistance I interpose a spring, f, between the head of the set-screw and back of the pad. The usual 5 front strap, D, which connects the extremities of the supporting-bar, I connect with said bar above the pad P by means of a clip, Z, attached to the bar A at the point aforesaid, which clip is provided with a button or stud,to which the strap D is detachably connected in any ordinary and well-known manner. The clip land pad P are further secured on the bar A by means of an arm, h, which lies longitudinally on the back of the pad, and has its upper end rigidly attached to or integral with the clip I, and is clamped thereby 0n the bar A. The lower end of the arm 71 lies over the back of the eyebolt d, and is perforated for the passage through it of the set-screw e, before described.

By connecting the strap D with the support- 2. The combination of the pad P, provided with a longitudinal channel, the eyebolt (1, arranged in the pad across the channel, the supportingbar A, having its end in the said channel and through the eyebolt, the arm 71, clamped on the bar A above the pad, and having its lower end over the back of the eyebolt and perforated, the set-screw a, passing through the arm 71 and eyebolt,and engaging the bar A, and the strap D, connected with the upper end of the arm h, substantially as described and shown. 1

In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto signed my name and aflixed my seal, in the presence of two attesting witnesses, at Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga,in the State of New York, this 3d day of March, 1886.

CHARLES H. NICOLLS. a s.]

Witnesses:

G. H. DUELL, O. BENDIXON. 

